When we talk about speaking life, we could move in a thousand different directions, and almost all of them lead to us standing in front of a mirror. Words of life begin and end with us, with our own mouths speaking out of the fullness of our heart. Before we go there, before we stand in front of a mirror and look at the ways our fault lines cause us to crack, I want to start at the very beginning.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” ~Genesis 1:1-3
The first act of creation comes at the sound of the Father’s voice. He speaks, and light and life spring forth from his mouth. He creates something out of nothing. His words build galaxies. They fling stars into the sky and call mountains to stretch high and wide from the foundation of the earth. His voice causes a garden to unfold, and dust to take the shape of man. He calls out into the darkness and every good and perfect thing springs from it. He speaks, and there is a world teeming with life.
We see too, that the Spirit of God is present, hovering and breathing life into the world as God calls it forth. Jesus is there, the Word of God made flesh, and through him all things are created. At the very beginning, there is the breath and word of God working together to create, to build, to call everything into being. We see words at work, and how great and unfathomable their power when spoken from the mouth of God.
We may not be able to call a mountain out of the sea or place a creature in the deep, but our words carry weight. They have the power to lift up and tear down. They have the power to worship, to cry out at injustice, to speak new things to life in the heart of someone we love. They have the power to malign and gossip and destroy. They have the power to sing and weave stories and change minds. Words have power and we can use them to call something beautiful and holy out of the deep, or we can use them to bring everything crashing down.
I want my words to partner with God in the act of creation. How about you?
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This post is the second in a series called 31 Days of Speaking Life. Want to know more about the 31 Days writing challenge? Hop on over here. Want to receive these posts via email straight into your inbox? Sign up below.
[…] Day 2: In the beginning […]